Visiting RightNote's website (http://www.bauerapps.com/rightnote-release-history/ I noticed that Rael Bauer is now offering new releases at surprising speed. Since last November, the release history is as follows:

15 November 2017 — 6 December 2017 — 12 December 2017 — 17 January 2018 — 22 February 2018 — 27 February 2018 — 8 March 2018 — 18 March 2018 — 20 March 2018

In some cases he offers only a few small improvements, but in others (such as that of 22 February, which includes a list of twenty) the changes are more substantial.

This rapid pace seems to confirm his promise last year that he would be focusing on RightNote more vigorously. I wish some of my other software were displaying such signs of life.

It is nice to see that he has picked up the pace of development. When I purchased RN a few years ago, he was awfully slow to respond to email questions about product support/use. I know he was a one-man show, but it left me feeling a bit frustrated at the time as days, if not weeks, would go by before I got a response. As I have a license, I may give it a second look as it had many nice features, but was missing a few that I needed at the time.

--Ken

RightNote definitely shows promise. From my point of view, its greatest weakness is the fairly primitive tagging system. But aside from that, it's a good choice for those who prefer to keep data on their own computer rather than in the cloud. (As is MyInfo, incidentally.)

I gather, for example, that when Microsoft abandons its desktop version of OneNote in the foreseeable future, the (somewhat dumbed-down) app replacement will be a cloud-only program. That makes me very uneasy.

Is there a notice posted that Microsoft will abandon OneNote desktop on Windows? Link? Or is that just some blogosphere conjecturing?

Here's one link to the Microsoft forum:

https://onenote.uservoice.com/forums/327186-onenote-for-windows-windows-phone/suggestions/32737648-include-onenote-for-desktop-in-office-2019

Apparently the traditional version of OneNote will not be included in the Office 2019 suite.

Thanks for raising this question. I've done some more investigation now, and I find that, as usual, Microsoft is giving out mixed signals in its various announcements. They have made it clear for the last year or two that the desktop OneNote is no longer being being modified or improved, whereas there are frequent new releases of the UWP OneNote (i.e., what was originally the mobile app). There is a widespread consensus that the older OneNote will be dropped from Office 2019, as the discussion I linked to above shows, but Microsoft's own public comments on the subject seem to be exceptionally vague.

It's now clear that the traditional OneNote will be allowed to die (there will certainly be no further development of it), but at this point we don't know whether it will be a rapid or a lingering death.

As I said earlier, if you're unenthusiastic about operating in a cloud-only environment, that's probably a strong argument for reconsidering more traditional note-takers like RightNote and MyInfo.

I bit the bullet and purchased DEVON Think Pro last month. I'm slowly converting OneNote data over. I have used OneNote since version one. I'm really going to miss it.

WSP wrote:

Thanks for raising this question. I've done some more investigation now,
and I find that, as usual, Microsoft is giving out mixed signals in its
various announcements. They have made it clear for the last year or two
that the desktop OneNote is no longer being being modified or improved,
whereas there are frequent new releases of the UWP OneNote (i.e., what
was originally the mobile app). There is a widespread consensus that the
older OneNote will be dropped from Office 2019, as the discussion I
linked to above shows, but Microsoft's own public comments on the
subject seem to be exceptionally vague.

It's now clear that the traditional OneNote will be allowed to die
(there will certainly be no further development of it), but at this
point we don't know whether it will be a rapid or a lingering death.

As I said earlier, if you're unenthusiastic about operating in a
cloud-only environment, that's probably a strong argument for
reconsidering more traditional note-takers like RightNote and MyInfo.